A Walk at Waiatarua Reserve

I took a walk around Waiatarua Reserve, Remuera, on May 14 2025. This was my first time at the reserve, so I did not know what to expect. The morning air offered a fluctuating temperature, and slight breezes that swayed across the tall, marshy grass. The ponds boasted a muddy scent. The slim, tall trees had their leaves blushing from the wind.

There were a lot of dogs being walked at the time I went, and although I wanted to pet them all, there was an array of many birds that I wanted to see. I was curious, because although I see a lot of birds in my own backyard, they are the common garden birds: sparrows, pidgeons, song thrush, blackbirds, and mynas. This reserve offered a lot more variety, and I could tell by this nifty sign that I found.

Sign of birds common to Waiatarua Reserve
Sign of birds common to Waiatarua Reserve

Walking around the reserve, there were many birds that I spotted, flying around, landing in the winding branches of the trees. There was one bird, that I could not identify other than it was a long black bird. There were other birds that were flying far in the distance, but I could not identify them from their silhouette contrasting the sunny and overcast morning sky.

The temperature was fluctuating so fast, with breezes passing my neck, so I could not verify if there was any change in the behaviour of the birds. I do not know if smaller birds such as sparrows and fantails would hide away in the trees to avoid shivering in the grass.

The plot below shows the different species of birds that I saw at Waiatarua Reserve, and the different temperatures they were seen in.

Birds Seen at Waiatarua Reserve As you can see, the temperature only varied between 15 to 17 degrees Celsius. There was a decent variety of birds seen, with the more common birds at the reserve being the same as my garden, such as blackbirds and sparrows. There were a few rare birds, such as the one hummingbird I saw and a couple of rosellas, not to mention the long black bird I could not identify.

It seems that the temperature did not deter different bird species from being sighted more or less at the time I was there. This is most likely because of how quickly the temperature changed.

This next plot shows where I saw the birds at Waiatarua Reserve, such as whether a bird was in some trees, flying around, waddling on the grass or perched on a fence.

Birds Seen at Waiatarua Reserve and Where They Were As you can see, most of the birds that I saw were flying out-and-about, and that was aparant across all the different species of birds that I saw. There were a few blackbirds standing on a bench, while there was a lot of sparrows, blackbirds and a few pigeons standing on the ground.

Was it Just the Weather?

I was curious whether the overcast weather that I had been in at Waiatarua Reserve had any impact on the bird species that I saw. Looking back at all the data I had collected, I had a new plot that showed the different bird species that I saw given different weather:

The plot shows that the makeup of birds that I have seen is almost regardless of the weather outside. I have seen a sparrow in nearly all instances of weather experienced across Auckland, with pigeons and blackbirds also being in most of them.

Had the observations been done over different seasons, with a wider range of weather experiences, there may have been more of an interesting tale to see with what birds tend to be seen in what weather. So the only conclusion I can draw form weather and bird species so far is that sparrows will be just about everywhere.

Real Nestate

I have seen birds all over the city, and I wanted to see if the birds that I saw at Waiatarua Reserve in Remuera were unique to the suburb in Remuera. I went over before that common birds that I found in my garden in the neighbouring suburb of Ellerslie, such as sparrows and blackbirds, were found at the reserve, however, with the more obscure birds, were they unique to the hillier suburb of Remuera? It would also be interesting to see if birds across the city were in certain settings according to their suburb. For instance, are birds in Newmarket more likely to be standing on the ground, etc.

The observations I have taken of birds have ranged from different suburbs across Auckland. I have been using the post code of each suburb in the response, as an easier way to validate the area I am in, and to make sure there was not a long list of suburb names in the form.

Frequent suburb post codes I used in my observation:

Suburb Birds Were Seen The plot above shows the different species of birds, where they were seen, split by suburb (post code). For suburbs such as Auckland City Centre (1010) and Grafton (1023), there is not much data for me to draw a conclusion about where birds ‘hang-out’ most often in those given suburbs. In the suburbs that I have sufficient data on, such as Ellerslie (1051) and Remuera (1050), it seems there is a wide variety of birds across different settings.

An interesting note is that the Michaels Avenue Reserve in Ellerslie is the only place I saw Pūkekoe, due to the pond in that area. So that being said, the nature of a given suburb, such as the bodies of water in it, the forest areas it was, and buildings, would all be a factor in seeing where a given bird is seen. Whether this determines the species of bird being seen is another story.